


Day 15 Legend

by Mooseonthehalfshell



Series: Moose's Multifandom Inktober 2019 [14]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Post-Reaper War, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 11:09:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21053414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mooseonthehalfshell/pseuds/Mooseonthehalfshell
Summary: Shepard talked to Hackett on why she, despite her misgivings, deserves to be called a legend.





	Day 15 Legend

**Author's Note:**

> I have a weird, but bizarrely dear to my heart, headcanon that Hackett is Shepard's father but they didn't find that out till after, at least, ME1.  
I will be writing a whole fic about it after Inktober  
But this, at least in my head, takes place after they know and that's why Hackett calls her, her first name and not Shepard or Commander.
> 
> Also I think Hackett swears like you wouldn't believe when not on official Alliance channels

_ "You're a legend Commander." _

The first time Shepard heard that she wanted to ask the young soldier if he had mistaken her for someone else. 

“You better get used to it,” Garrus told her. 

“You're the Savior of the Citadel, stopped the Collector’s, and to top it off you destroyed the Reapers.”

She hadn’t thought of it that way. “But I was just doing what had to be done.”

"True," he said nuzzling his head against hers. "But you're the one who did it, who didn't falter when everyone else did."

"It still feels like it's wrong that I'm a legend."

Garrus was quite a moment. "When you first got out of basic who was a legend to you."

"Hackett actually." She said with an almost laugh, considering how close she'd became with the Admiral.

"Call him up, see what he has to say about it." He offered giving her a peck on the cheek.

//

A few days later she met Hackett in a restaurant. 

"Astrid, what's wrong?" He asked as he sat down across from her.

"Nothing's wrong." She said. "Just need some advice… or guidance or something."

"Well I'm more than happy to help." He said with the smallest wry smile 

"An ensign called me a legend the other day."

And there was a pause.

"Okay… what's the issue?" 

"I don't think I'm 'legend' material." She huffed.

"Why not? You've done incredible things." Hackett reminded her.

"Yeah but I was  _ just  _ doing what had to be done. I was just a soldier. Hell I  _ am _ just a soldier. Anyone else would have done the same."

"Would they?" Hackett asked leaning his elbows on the table and folding his hands. "You stood up to the council. Despite people telling you that you were crazy. You did what you thought… what you knew what was right. And you saved the Citadel. You were brought back from the dead, not many people can say that. Despite people turning their backs on you, you kept the lives of human colonists a priority over Alliance and Citadel red tape. And then after circumstances that forced you to make hard decisions that the Alliance didn’t like-”

“Working with terrorist and destroying a whole system?” Astrid interjected.

“Yeah,” he laughed dryly. “Cerberus and the Alpha Relay. Two things that if they had pulled their heads out of their asses they would have realized they pushed you to do thought in the end saved lives. But when you were done saving our asses a second time, you showed up to take the full weight of the Admiralty Board, dress blues on and head held high. And they kept you squirreled away until they realized that you had been right all along so they wanted you to fix their problem for them. And you did.”

She moved as if to wave it all off but Hackett didn’t let her.

“You didn’t lord it over them. You didn’t, for sake of pride, tell them to find someone else to fix it. You jumped right back in and saved our sorry asses from the Reapers. But not before you did something no one else had even tried to think to do. You got the genophage cured. You brokered a treaty between the krogan and the turians AND between the quarians and the geth. You beat the Reapers back while simultaneously dealing with Cerberus and the shitstorm they cooked up. And then when someone needed to get up there to jump start the Catalyst you didn’t hesitate even though we all thought it was going to be a one way trip. And it should have been. You were grey when they dug you out Astrid,  _ grey _ , they almost couldn’t find your pulse it was so weak. The only reason they knew your even were still alive is because your left lung was so damaged from your own ribs caving in what little breaths you took was weezy.”

Hackett had said it all calm enough you could have thought he was just reading off a page, but Astrid could see the fire in his eyes.

“So you tell me, would every other soldier do that? Because i don’t think so. I’ve seen men flake out because they didn’t like their Commanding Officer. Knew men who were more afraid of dying than the enemy. Kicked out soldiers who shirked their duty because they thought it was above or below them. Seen the most battle hardened war machines die from the smallest injury. You carried the weight of the galaxy on your shoulders without flinching or wavering. No, Astrid, I think you and your crew are the only ones who are deserving of ‘legend’.”

Astrid was speechless. She tried to hide how actually touched she was by taking a sip from her drink and then staring down into it.

“Its weird to hear it though, and especially when you lay all out like that.”

“Yeah I know. It was really strange the first time a cadet told me I was a legend. Hell I still think it's strange. And you may never get used to hearing it. But don’t try to downplay what you’ve done.”


End file.
